She had a gift, she had passion, she was a mighty warrior for her people and she did all her campaigning within the strict confines of Orthodox Judaism. There can be a public role for women in Orthodox Judaism.
Esther Jungreis never claimed to be a rabbi. She believed in separate roles for men and women.
(JTA) — Esther Jungreis, a pioneer in the Jewish outreach movement and founder of the organization Hineni, died Tuesday. She was 80, according to the Vos Iz Neias blog.
An announcement published in October on the site Only Simchas indicated Jungreis was “in serious condition” and fighting an infection, but did not specify her ailment.
Jungreis was born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1936, where her father was chief rabbi. A child survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, she and her family resettled in 1947 in Brooklyn, where she married her distant cousin, Rabbi Meshulem HaLevi Jungreis, according to the Yeshiva World. She and her husband, who died in 1996, founded the North Woodmere Jewish Center/Congregation Ohr Torah on Long Island in 1964.
Jungreis, known universally by the honorific rebbetzin, founded Hineni in 1973 in order to bring young Jews closer to Orthodox Judaism by offering Torah classes, singles events, and Shabbat and holiday services. She spoke to audiences across the United States, including at Madison Square Garden in 1973.
She was known for her work in outreach to young Jews, as well as for self-help books about a variety of topics, including marriage and relationship advice, as well as how to deal with challenges in life.
Jungreis drew inspiration from her experience as a Holocaust survivor to fight for Jewish continuity and against intermarriage. But her statements comparing assimilation to the Holocaust sometimes sparked controversy.
“To be a Jew is the greatest privilege,” she implored at a speech in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1999. “To be unaware of it is the greatest catastrophe — spiritual genocide.”
